


Family Time

by phoenixgal



Series: Scenes from a Life [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bisexual Male Character, Christmas, Family, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-27
Updated: 2017-09-27
Packaged: 2019-01-05 23:47:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12199704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixgal/pseuds/phoenixgal
Summary: Harry wants some time away from family, but when he goes out looking for a one night stand, he accidentally ends up spending the evening with Charlie instead.





	Family Time

Harry watched as Ginny somehow managed to chat with Charlie, tease George about the black eye his own son had given him, and keep Albus and Rose's quarreling from coming to blows all at once. There was something beautiful about it, but at the same time, he was beyond exhausted. He never stopped appreciating that this was his family, warm and encompassing and loving; the exact opposite of what he'd known growing up. But as he got to know himself better, he had begun to realize how much he needed a break from family time too, especially around the holidays. A few years ago, he'd never have even been able to admit to himself that he wouldn't want to do any and everything the Weasleys ever wanted of him, especially when it just meant sitting there and smiling and being included.

It was an especially big holiday. Charlie was back from Romania, having left his position at the dragon reserve. Bill had been away for most of the last year on business for Gringotts and everyone was glad he was finally back. Percy had spent the last two holidays with his wife's family, but they were there as well. It was wonderful, but overwhelming, especially with the kids mostly under ten. Plus, with Christmas actually on Wednesday, everything seemed to have started up on Saturday.

That was why, come Monday, as Harry spent all day looking antsy and out of sorts, Ginny told him to take the evening off. “Go out with your muggle bloke,” she said.

Harry had been sleeping with the same detective inspector for going on two years. While Ginny had met him a few times, she generally referred to him as Harry's muggle bloke. “He went halfway around the world with his mum,” Harry complained. Tim had taken a longer holiday to go visit his mother's family for two weeks. He would be busy when he got back as well. Harry guessed it could be a month before he saw him again.

“Oh, that's right.” Ginny scrunched up her nose. “How again? Do airplanes really go as far as India?”

“Yes, they do. And you should have done muggle studies in school.”

“So many subjects, so little time.” Ginny grinned. “Go out and pull then. Go out, get away from us. It's a skeleton crew tonight besides. Charlie was going out with friends, I think. Percy and Audrey are doing something with her cousins. And Ron and Hermione are at her parents', so Albus and Rose won't be doing their little best friends make the best enemies act. Plus Victoire will be glad Teddy's still with us.”

“I love that 'skeleton crew' is still like twenty people crammed into the Burrow,” Harry said.

It took a little more prodding, but when Harry remembered that some of Tim's friends, who were usually fun, had invited him out to pub for the day before Christmas Eve, he caved.

“Go get well fucked, come home nice and loose, and then enjoy Christmas with me and the kids,” Ginny instructed, swatting him on the arse before she went to wrangle the kids through the Floo.

A few hours later, Harry found himself at the pub, with was surprisingly energetic and crowded for a Monday night. Harry supposed it was everyone getting off work for the holidays. Simon and Mo, and a few other people that Harry thought of as friends of Tim's, were there, drinking and laughing, cheerful about the upcoming holidays. 

They were mostly planning to spend the holidays together. Mo's family lived halfway across the world, Simon was estranged from his parents, a third friend Harry only sort of knew didn't want to take the time off to go back home to Ireland. Simon, who delighted in teasing Harry about how completely odd he was, teased him about his own family. They didn't know much, but they knew Harry had some number of children. More to the point, they knew he was rubbish with technology and fashion and popular culture. Simon liked to quiz him about all the songs he'd never heard.

Harry wondered at first if Simon got away with this sort of behavior because he was so gorgeous, like a sort of blond, Scandinavian model. Now that he knew him a little better, getting teased by Simon had almost become an enjoyment.

There was another friend, someone named Leo who Harry had never met but who was clearly giving him the eye. Harry happily flirted back. Leo did something involving computers that Harry pretended to understand and which Simon, catching on that he had no idea, immediately ribbed him about.

“Wait, wait,” Harry said, laughing. “I think I do get it. You're in security, which is how you met Tim.”

Simon shook his head, but Leo laughed. “Close enough, mate.” Harry looked at the muscles on Leo's dark skin and his warm, relaxed smile on his face.

“Another pint?” Harry asked, holding up his empty glass.

“I'll come with,” Leo said, gesturing toward the bar.

Before they made it to the counter, Leo's hand had found Harry's arse and drifted up his back.

“We understanding each other?” he asked, his slight accent thickening.

“Yeah, I think so.” Harry turned and put a hand on Leo's arm.

“Simon calls you the ghost, says you run out on him before he could come back from the toilet. You planning on doing that to me?”

“Probably,” Harry said with a shrug.

“Yeah, we're understanding each other fine,” Leo said with a chuckle.

“Still want that pint?” Harry asked.

“It's not late yet, and I got my plans all laid out now,” Leo said. “Maybe just one more.”

Harry leaned back against the bar as Leo got them each another pint. He was getting better at appreciating muggle beers, but he liked it when someone else chose because he didn't think he'd ever be an expert. It had been hard enough sorting out firewhiskey brands.

He smiled lazily, not really paying much attention to anything, as Leo, still facing the bar, wrapped an arm across his chest, a finger casually rubbing against his nipple through his shirt.

“Hello, Harry.”

Harry startled slightly and looked to his left where he saw, standing in front of him, face blank, Charlie Weasley.

“Oh, Merlin,” Harry muttered, straightening, and pushing Leo's arm away. His mind was a flurry of confused thoughts. “What are… I mean… Is everything all right? Is Ginny…? Are the kids…? Is everything…? I mean...” Years ago, he and Ginny had charmed their wedding bands to heat up if the other was in grave danger. It had been a bit of tricky magic he and George had worked out together. His wedding ring was currently in his back pocket, cool, but he reached back to feel it.

“Just happened to come in with an old friend,” Charlie said. “Didn't expect to run into you here.”

That was when it hit him. This was a coincidence. And now his brother-in-law, the one he knew the least because he was usually out of the country, was looking at him with a cold, calculating look because he had been caught out.

“Fuck,” he swore.

“Yeah,” Charlie said.

“No, it's not…” Harry made a frustrated, swallowed noise. “It's… I'm sorry, Leo… I need to… I… maybe another time...”

Charlie, who had looked unnaturally calm, made a noise almost like a growl. 

“Everything okay?” Leo asked.

“Yeah, it will be… I...” Harry felt like he was flailing.

“Harry has to go,” Charlie said.

“When you said you'd duck out on me, I figured it would be after, not before,” Leo said. “Simon wasn't wrong about you being an odd one.”

“Yeah,” Harry said, hardly able to think of anything except avoiding whatever hex Charlie clearly had in mind long enough to explain himself.

Leo excused himself with his pint, headed back over to his friends. Harry said, quickly, “She knows. Gin is… you can ask her. This isn't… it's not...” He took a deep breath. He had told himself to stop doing this, going all half sentences and unfinished explanations.

Before he could regroup, Charlie said, “Outside then.”

Harry wasn't sure if that was better or worse, but he reluctantly followed his brother-in-law outside into the damp, chilly darkness of the London street. Once they were there, Charlie looked torn, like he wanted to do Harry violence but wasn't sure it was allowed.

“Look, Charlie...”

“Want to get a bite?” Charlie asked.

“You're not going to hex me?”

“Not yet.”

Harry gulped. “Er… yeah… all right.”

“I have no fucking clue what I'm doing in the muggle world, much less in a city,” Charlie complained. “But I've ditched my old muggleborn friend. Find us something, yeah?”

This was one of Tim's two pubs, both within a few blocks of his flat. With a shrug, Harry took Charlie to the other one, a quieter place with pub food and a sort of happy, queer atmosphere and lots of lesbians. He had once brought Ginny and Jules here and they had spent the whole time laughing at all the muggle fashion choices, which Harry thought was pretty rich, given that his wife was wearing a very odd set of muggle plaids and Jules was in her typically out of place mix of witch and punk.

Harry got them burgers and chips and a little table in the corner.

“Muggle food,” Charlie said, with a strange grin. “All right then. Talk.” His words were almost light, but his tone was serious. Harry thought about every vision he'd ever had about angry fathers and older brothers. But the Weasleys were his as well. No matter what happened, they were his family. And Charlie was queer. Surely he'd understand.

“I… er...” Harry took a breath and started again. “We've always had an open marriage, Charlie. We're both a bit, well, bent, and this has always seemed like the right solution for us. It's… er… it's natural, I guess. Ginny really doesn't mind. She told me to come out with my… with a lover of mine, but he was away. But she knew I was out to pull tonight. She was the one who suggested it. And she'll spend New Year's with one of her girlfriends and I don't mind about that.”

Charlie just watched him as he chewed his food so Harry babbled on, trying to explain his life.

“Her last year at Hogwarts, she started sleeping with Luna. They're not together anymore, but she's had several girlfriends. She met Jules when she was pregnant with Albus. I wasn't always so comfortable with talking to people about being, well, being queer, but Ginny has always been brilliant. And now I've had Tim for a couple of years. Ginny and I used to screw it up sometimes. We had a giant row just after Lily was born. But things are wonderful now. And we have rules. And I promise I'm not breaking them. You can ask her.”

Charlie seemed to consider this. “I knew about Gin, but not about you. And not about any of that.”

“That must have been a shock, in there,” Harry said. “Thanks for not immediately hexing me.”

“It was a muggle club,” he said. “I'd have punched you.”

Harry laughed.

“I almost did.”

Harry's laugh died into a smile.

“Who knows?”

Harry looked away. “Not many people.”

Charlie didn't say anything, just kept looking even and slightly dark, his thick red eyebrows slightly bunched as he narrowed his eyes.

“Ron and George,” Harry said. “Bill knows about Gin being bi, which I knew you did as well. We had some trouble after Lily was born. I'm pretty sure your mum knows, but she's, well, she's your mum. She just loves us all and doesn't make a fuss. There are a couple of friends who know, mostly people who are gay or queer themselves, like Luna.”

“That's all?”

“I'm not really comfortable telling people,” Harry said.

As Charlie stared him down, Harry sighed. “I'm not really comfortable telling people anything. Not that I'm bisexual, or that we're polyamorous. Or even what I had for fucking breakfast this morning. It hasn't always been…” Harry paused, thinking about Ron's continuing discomfort in talking about this, about how he'd never quite brought himself to explain things to Hermione, how George had taken him aside and told him if he hurt Ginny he didn't care that Harry was the “savior of the wizarding world, he'd hex him so fast his cock would fall off. And then there was the press. Harry lived in a sort of dread that one day the Prophet would get hold of some photo of him pressed against a wall at a club with a man on the other side. When he was younger, it was just a sort of abstract thing he wanted to avoid. Now, with the kids, he was scared to death of how they would think of him if that became front page news.

“It hasn't always been well-received,” he finished lamely.

Charlie chewed his food slowly. “I'm sorry, Harry,” he said.

“Thanks,” Harry said quietly.

“Eat up!” Charlie insisted. “You're too skinny!”

Harry looked down at his untouched food. “I'm definitely not skinny anymore.” He knew he was in decent shape, but he also felt the first tugs of middle age. He wasn't sure how Charlie, who had nearly a decade on him, was coping. He looked incredible as always.

“Sorry I interrupted then,” Charlie said as Harry finally bit into his burger. “He was a good looking bloke.”

Harry gave a small groan. “Well, another time. I'll cross Leo's path again. I have a feeling he likes a challenge and I might have just become one.”

“You like that, huh?”

Harry felt himself redden in the dim light. “Maybe. Yeah.”

“He looked like he wanted to hold you down and not let you up,” Charlie observed.

Harry felt a little chill go down his spine thinking about it.

“Fermats,” Charlie said. “You really are bent as a cheap spoon, Harry.”

“But I love your sister,” Harry said, feeling suddenly it was important to point this out.

“Yeah. Almost too bad. That look on your face just then, I wouldn't have minded holding you down myself just to see it again,” Charlie said.

Harry breathed deeply, trying not to think about winter break of sixth year when he was first, fearfully aware that gay people even existed and saw Charlie at the Weasleys' and ended up tossing off to thoughts of the older man in the shower. “That, er, might have been good,” Harry said.

“How did I never know this before?”

“You're away most of the time.”

“And about to be more,” he said. “America's even farther than Romania.”

“What?”

“I took a job as head of the western preserve there.”

“Wow. Congratulations.”

“Yeah, it's big. Mum's going to have kittens. I'm not looking forward to that part, but it's a huge opportunity.”

“She'll recover. She wants what's best for all of us,” Harry said.

“Yeah,” Charlie agreed, running one of his chips through the sauce. “You know you could have told me, Harry. I hate that you… I know I'm not exactly a model of openness. When we were younger, Mum and Dad didn't want me talking to all the little kids about being gay, as if not knowing there are queers can keep you from being queer. And I was out of there anyway so I didn't. But things really are different now.”

“I didn't know, as a kid,” Harry said. “I heard some of those words, like poof and shirt-lifter at the Dursleys, but I never knew what they meant, just that they were bad. I was fifteen before anyone explained to me that a man could be interested in other men. It was… well, I can remember spending the next week unable to think about much else. But then Sirius was dead and Dumbledore and everything was a mess and I didn't have time really to think about anything for awhile. And sixth year, I fell in love with Gin and I thought I was done with those thoughts.”

“Hogwarts should do sex ed,” Charlie said.

Harry snorted.

“I'm serious. I know the parents would freak, but they really ought to. It certainly would have been useful in my day.”

“Somehow I think you figured it all out before you left,” Harry said. As soon as it was out, he hoped it didn't sound too envious. He was mostly beyond mourning the lost elements of his childhood. Making sure his own kids never had to worry about that was helping in an odd way, as was having an abundance of love and family and even lovers as an adult.

“Nah. I figured a few things out, but I also got my heart ripped out by my best mate. All through sixth year, I convinced myself he felt the same way as I did. Turned out that was so far off base that our friendship never recovered.” Charlie suddenly eyed Harry shrewdly. “You and Ron...”

“Fuck no,” Harry said before he could finish. “Ron's never been comfortable with any of this. He knows, but… well, any time there's anything even slightly queer and I'm around, he feels this sudden, desperate need to assert how straight he is. It's a little bit… infuriating.”

“Ron's a bloody idiot then,” Charlie said. “Always has been.”

Harry sighed. “Yeah. Doesn't help that I'm so… I mean…” He waved his hand, hoping it indicated how difficult he found it to talk about these issues in any real way.

Charlie seemed to understand. He began telling Harry about his last boyfriend, then about the one before that. And then it was like the ice was broken and Harry slowly found it easier to talk about lovers. He talked about Tim, and about a few of his more memorable one nighters, and about Neville and Neville's boyfriend Trevor, who was mostly all right but strangely tense all the time. They each looked over the blokes in the quiet pub, most of them with their own lovers or friends, laughing about the types one encountered in clubs and speculating about everyone in bed.

Several pints and a great deal of good conversation later, Harry realized how late it was.

“Fuck. I should get home,” he said. “I usually take the kids out in the morning to get them out of Gin's hair while she makes the Christmas magic happen.”

Charlie chuckled. “Mum won't like me coming in this late, but I guess she'll have to deal.”

Harry laughed. “Come take the sofa at ours. The kids'll be thrilled to see their uncle in the morning.”

Charlie smiled. They left the pub still talking and laughing and Harry felt the warm sense of family and acceptance in a way that he often didn't with anyone but Ginny. When he took Charlie's arm to apparate them home, he squeezed his muscled bicep and laughed silently at himself for having wanted to escape the Weasleys for a night when actually a long talk with Charlie had turned out to be just the family time he had wanted.

“Thanks,” Harry said in the darkened living room, where Al's toys were strewn across the floor and Lily's dress up clothes were piled on the sofa.

“For not hexing you?”

“It was punching, right?” Harry said. “Yeah, that. But also, just for the talk. It was nice.”

“You going to wake up Ginny?” Charlie asked.

“No. Just go in quietly. Why?”

He shrugged. Maybe you should tell her you didn't pull her brother while you were out.”

Harry laughed and had to make himself quieter so he didn't wake the kids. “There are no rules for that.”

Charlie snorted and headed toward the guest room. 

Harry carefully sneaked into his own bedroom, quietly slipping out of his clothes, pulling his wedding band from his back pocket and replacing it on his finger before climbing into bed in just his pants.

“S'late,” Ginny murmured. “Good night?”

“The best.”

“Mmm,” she said, pulling him to her. “Cold.” But she didn't seem to mind and snuggled into him, pressing her warm feet against his calves. “Glad you're home.”

“Yeah,” Harry said. “Me too.”


End file.
